Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane has claimed that his time in jail is benefiting his party.
Lamichhane said this to CPN (Maoist Center) Chairperson and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who reached Nakkhu Prison in Lalitpur on Wednesday to meet Lamichhane.
“I still don’t understand why the government and this coalition have been so hostile toward me. Why are others in similar cases acquitted while I am kept behind bars? Why is there a sense of revenge?” Dahal said, quoting Lamichhane. “Keeping me in jail has benefited my party. Why haven’t the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML understood this?”
Dahal said he met Lamichhane in prison as a guardian. “He served twice as Home Minister in my cabinet. I came as a guardian to meet him,” he said. “I had also planned to visit him in Bhairahawa. However, it was not possible due to time constraints.”
Talking to journalists after meeting Lamichhane, Dahal accused the NC-UML coalition of moving toward authoritarianism. “The government has repeatedly targeted the Deputy Speaker, treating her unfairly over minor mistakes,” Dahal said. “The coalition is heading toward autocracy. It is using the Deputy Speaker to intimidate all constitutional bodies.”
Dahal said the opposition parties would block any effort to attack constitutional bodies.
